CAR BOMB EXPLODES NEAR ARCO FAIR

Basque separatists claimed responsibility for a powerful car bomb attack near Madrid’s convention center hours before Spain’s king and queen and the visiting Mexican president were to inaugurate the international art fair ARCO, CNN reports. There were no reported fatalities but police said forty-two were hurt by the blast, with twenty-four of them taken to hospital. Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon said that most of the injuries—many caused by flying glass—were light. Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said ARCO would take place as scheduled, despite what he called a “serious” attack several hundred meters from the main convention center facility where King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Mexican President Vicente Fox were to arrive later in the day.